The 2002/2003 Toyota Symphonies for Youth concert series featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic continues with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - Music and Art with Assistant Conductor Yasuo Shinozaki and host John de Lancie on Saturday, February 8 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Children and families are invited to take part in the pre-concert activities including arts, crafts, dance, and storytelling beginning at 10 a.m. with the one-hour concert following at 11 a.m.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - Music and Art introduces children to the popular music of the Russian composer who garnered influence from recognized Russian artists of his time. He wrote Pictures at an Exhibition after attending a commemorative exhibition displaying the art of his late friend, Victor Hartmann. Each movement of the work depicts a particular painting. For this concert, fifth grade students were asked to make their own art based on the music - rather than the other way around - and the winning artwork is shown on a big screen on stage as the orchestra performs.

Held on Saturday mornings, Toyota Symphonies for Youth is an entertaining series of concerts designed for children ages 5-11 and their families. Families should plan to arrive early and spend the morning making music, meeting musicians, listening to stories, learning to sing, and creating art projects with all activities revolving around the day's featured musical theme. Actor John de Lancie, best known as "Q" on Star Trek, The Next Generation, returns for a fifth season as host. The concerts feature projections of the musicians on a screen above the orchestra.

The 2002/2003 season, the eighth year that Toyota has sponsored the series, includes two more Toyota Symphonies for Youth concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The remaining concerts include: Sing a Song! - The Orchestra and the Voice on April 5, 2003; and Hooray for Hollywood - Music and the Movies on May 10, 2003.

Toyota Symphonies for Youth receives additional support from the following: Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The William Randolph Hearst Foundations, Morgan Stanley, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and the California Arts Council, a State agency. Toyota Symphonies for Youth are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

YASUO SHINOZAKI is currently assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Shinozaki regularly leads the Philharmonic in its community concert series and in the Toyota Symphonies for Youth programs. In February, Shinozaki made his subscription series debut on short notice, stepping in for an ailing guest conductor, in three all-Beethoven concerts. In July, he made his Hollywood Bowl debut. Continuing to work in a wide range of repertoire with orchestras throughout Japan including the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra and Osaka Symphony Orchestra, Shinozaki has conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic as well as the Turku Philharmonic. Shinozaki made his opera debut in 1993 with The Marriage of Figaro in Tokyo and has since conducted at several opera houses in Japan. Shinozaki completed his conducting studies at the Vienna Musikhochschule with Leopold Hager and has also worked with Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink at Tanglewood. He makes his debut at the Hollywood Bowl this summer.

Host JOHN DE LANCIE's career spans the areas of stage, movies, and television where he has proven himself to be an actor, director, and producer of note. He has appeared in nearly 100 TV shows, including his best-known role as Picard's bothersome adversary "Q" on Star Trek, The Next Generation. He co-owns, with Leonard Nimoy, Alien Voices (a production company), which has produced projects for Simon & Schuster, TNT, New Line, The Sci-Fi Channel, and California School Systems. De Lancie's love of music began as a child in Philadelphia, where he listened to Saturday night concerts at Philadelphia's Academy of Music. He has performed as a speaker and narrator with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony.